( For more information about NCSC, visit our web site)
The mission of the National Center for Schools and Communities is to provide policy analysis, data, and technical assistance for grassroots efforts to win quality public schools in low-income communities and communities of color. A joint project of the Graduate School of Social Service and the Graduate School of Education, the Center creates research and action partnerships with grassroots organizations, parents, civic and community leaders, public school teachers, university faculty, and other community stakeholders dedicated to closing the achievement gap between poor children and other students. The NCSC provides opportunities for faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates to apply their academic skills to projects that contribute to positive social change.
A diverse set of projects advanced the mission of the Center during the past year:
National School Equity Campaign
The National Center for Schools and Communities provides data and policy analysis to support organizing for school reform. During the past year, we performed quantitative analyses of equity issues embedded in the distribution of teaching and programmatic resources in Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Portland OR for local community organizations. We prepared briefings for staff and leaders in groups in Chicago, Denver, and New York City on professional development, alternatives to zero tolerance in school discipline, and the status of middle school reform in New York City. We participated in and facilitated a workshop at the national gathering of the Applied Research Center’s ERASE network at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park CA.
NYC Parent Engagement
The NCSC was an active participant in the Alliance for Quality Education, a major coalition of 150 organizations working for equitable funding in New York City Schools. We convened and staffed the Fair Discipline Policy Task Force, a working group of advocacy, community, and youth organizations examining equity issues in the implementation of the Board of Education’s new state-mandated code of conduct. The Center has begun a quantitative analysis of school discipline data to document patterns of race, gender, and income discrimination and to relate those patterns to variations in the availability of resources required for a school to provide a sound educational program.
SCAN Project
The SCAN Project analyzes the relationship of community organizing and school reform and helps the Center shape our support for the education justice movement. Within last year, SCAN produced two studies. From Schoolhouse To Statehouse – Community Organizing for Public School Reform examines organizing models and approaches to school reform advocacy by synthesizing field interviews and documents collected in 1999-2000 from over 40 community organizations in 14 states. Unlocking The Schoolhouse Door – The Community Struggle For A Say In Our Children’s Education analyzes interviews with a different set of 51 organizations in 27 states to parse their problems, context, and policy analysis needs.
New York Philanthropy Initiative
The NYPI examines issues related to the democratization of philanthropy and the responsiveness of foundations to the mission and needs of non-profits engaged in social change, particularly at the grassroots level. During the past year, the NYPI published Penny For Your Thoughts, A Look At Philanthropy and Progressive Policy Advocacy in New York. The report summarizes qualitative, ethnographic research based on field interviews with 23 New York City advocacy-oriented non-profits. The conclusions challenge foundations to clarify their own change models, accept conflict as a dimension of social change, and reflect on cultural competency issues that might be hindering effective relationships with grantees.
GEAR UP Evaluation
The NCSC provides multi-year evaluation services for the Bronx Educational Alliance GEAR UP program. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education to increase the participation of low-income students in post-secondary education, GEAR UP providesintensive services for the 1999-2000 cohort of over 2,000 sixth grade studentsfrom seven Bronx middle schools as well as their parents and teachers. The evaluation assesses whether project activities are associated with improvements in participant attitudes and behaviors and with improvement in student academic performance and persistence in high school and college.
ENLACE Evaluation
With three years' funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, ENLACE plans to work within the GEAR UP cohort with approximately 1,200 Latino-identified students currently enrolled in middle school and their families. The ENLACE program design includes collaboration with ASPIRA to provide leadership skills training for parents and students and with the Bronx Council of the Arts (BCA) to deliver a “culturally sensitive Literacy through the Arts program” in two targeted schools.
Ongoing Virtual Y Evaluation Services
The Virtual Y is a free after-school program designed by the YMCA of Greater New York in which youth in grades two through four in 100 public schools practice skills learned in school and engage in safe, fun-filled, and challenging activities. In August 2001, we completed an annual Virtual Y program implementation review with data from 89 schools.
Extended-Day Schools Service Initiative (Wallace Readers Digest Funds)
The National Center for Schools and Communities was one of the early proponents of extended-service day schools (aka community schools) that provide a coordinated array of social services, health care, and enrichment activities to complement the basic educational program of public schools serving low-income children. The community schools concept we nurtured is now central to the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which this year has a Federal budget appropriation of over a billion dollars. In the past year, we underwrote and participated in the three-day Community Schools Practicum Plus, which was attended by practitioners from extended-service day schools in the Children’s Aid Society network from Boston, Long Beach CA, Newark, NYC, and Salt Lake City.
For more information contact:
John Beam, Executive Director, 212 636-6617, beam@fordham.edu
Fatos Kaba, Director of Research and Evaluation, 212 636-6501, kaba@fordham.edu
Gillian Eddins, Research Associate, eddins@fordham.edu
Kim Keaton, Policy Analyst, 212-636-6780, keaton@fordham.edu
Walkyria Mello, Grants Manager, 212-636-6558, wmello@fordham.edu
